


Breaking the Girl

by moojuicey



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Dubious Consent, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-19
Updated: 2010-03-19
Packaged: 2017-11-07 02:53:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/426113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moojuicey/pseuds/moojuicey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Eclipse AU written for the Kinkmeme on LJ. Following the fight with the newborns, Leah Clearwater offers herself to the Volturi for study in order to save her brother and her pack from destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking the Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [einfach_mich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/einfach_mich/gifts).



> Disclaimer: All I own is a mountain of debt.

“I’ll go,” Leah offered herself up for sacrifice.

 

“Leah, no! We can take these bloodsuckers!” Seth cried, horrified. There was a chorus of agreement from the rest of the wolves.

 

All the wolves except Jacob, that is. He knew what the consequences of noncompliance would be. Their gazes met across the dying campfire.

 

The pack had met to discuss what they would do, and they’d been arguing about it for hours. It was time to make a decision.

 

“Are you sure, Leah?”

 

“You know better than to ask me that, Jake,” she bit. “I wouldn’t have said it if I weren’t sure.”

 

Leah had been thinking about the possibility ever since Jane had spoken. Jacob’s howls of pain had reverberated across the miles after the battle with the newborns, and it didn’t take the Volturi long to discover the wolves’ existence. The three vampires had approached the treaty line at twilight, two days after the battle.

 

“Aro would be _quite_ interested to know all about your little… pack,” Jane had said to Sam when he’d asserted himself as leader. “I think…” She narrowed her eyes at Jake when he approached her too closely, intending to threaten, and his knees buckled beneath him.

 

Leah winced, watching her friend, her pack mate, her… Jacob writhe on the ground, grunting in pain. Jane sauntered up to his prostrate form, her crimson eyes never wavering, and a dangerous smirk twisting her face into something grotesquely beautiful.

 

“I think it would be best for all parties involved…” she began, and then blinked. Jake’s grunts of pain stopped, and he took a deep breath before looking Jane in the eye. That was one thing Leah liked about Jake. He had brass balls. “…if one of you would accompany us back to Volterra for… research purposes.”

 

“For torture, you mean?” Sam barked at her.

 

“We’ll need to assess your threat level. By whatever means necessary, of course,” the child vampire said with a grin. “You have twenty-four hours to choose a, well, for lack of a better term, _sacrifice_. If you can’t decide, we’ll choose for you,” Jane said, voice full of glee and malice.

 

Everyone in the packs glared at her openly. Except Leah, of course.

 

What kind of life was really waiting for her here? Seth was here, sure, but he was growing up well enough. Jake was still fighting for Bella. For the foreseeable future, Leah would run patrols with the pack, protect a leech lover she hated, and watch as all her best friends imprinted while she was left alone.

 

Maybe she would get hurt in Volterra, maybe not. But she would have a chance to get off the rez. Away from the prying minds of her pack mates. Away from Sam. Away from these confusing feelings she was having for… well. Life might be hard there, potentially painful, but she knew she’d live, and see new places, and fight those fucking leeches whenever she got the chance.

 

And maybe she’d get the chance to spar with that huge motherfucker Felix. That alone was reason enough to make her seriously consider taking a chance in Volterra. 

 

So she waited for the boys to argue themselves out. We can fight them, we can destroy them, we can pretend to send someone along, we can blah blah blah. And when they were tired of arguing, she volunteered herself to go. To accept the Volturi “request.”

 

“I’m sure about this, everyone. I should be the one to go. We can fight, and maybe we’d win, but more of them would come. We’re a small tribe, and we might win a battle or two, but we’ll never win the war. And you both know it,” Leah said, looking pointedly at Sam and Jacob in turn. Sam nodded dejectedly; Jake lowered his eyes, rubbing his forehead as though he was trying to rub the stress away.  

 

“You can’t be serious!” Seth interjected. “We are not _sacrificing_ my sister to a bunch of disgusting fiends. Sam?” Sam didn’t respond. “Leah! You _cannot_ be serious about this!”

 

“Seth,” Sam ordered. The double-timbre of his Alpha voice was unmistakable. He didn’t use it often, and Seth was taken aback. His mouth gaped. “Leah will go to Volterra.”

 

Jake cleared his throat to defuse the tension. “I’ll walk with you, Leah,” he offered quietly. “We should go soon.”

 

Most of her pack mates offered awkward hugs, solemn or sorrowful glances, or a few words of advice or affection. Seth stubbornly refused to look at her, his arms crossed and eyes fixed on the fading embers.

 

“Seth,” she tried. He didn’t respond. “Okay, I understand you’re hurt, little brother.” She sat next to him on the driftwood log. “You’re going to be just fine here. You’re going to be a great wolf, protect your friends in the white mansion, and take care of Mom. You’ll all be fine.”

 

Seth turned to her and sneered. “And you? How will you be, Leah?” He took her by the shoulders and shook her. “You will die if you go there,” he said desperately, enunciating every syllable.

 

She lifted his hands from her arms and kissed his palm. “Maybe, baby. Maybe not. But you’ll be safe. The pack will be safe. The _tribe_ will be safe.”  Leah stood up and dusted off the ash that clung to her clothing. “And who knows? I might get to kick some vampire ass,” she suggested with a grin.

 

Leah pulled Seth into a hug. He was just… defeated. “Don’t worry about me, Seth,” she whispered, even though the other wolves could still hear her. These were words she wanted to give just to him. “Keep yourself safe. Keep everyone else safe. If I get the chance, I’ll phase to let you know I’m okay. Okay?” She pulled away.

 

Seth’s eyes were watery, but he kept the tears at bay. He nodded and let her go. He turned on his heel and walked toward home. He didn’t look back.

 

The only one left to say goodbye to was Sam. Jacob hung back to give them a little privacy. Leah shuffled her feet, unsure what to say to her former lover. She tucked her hair behind her ears to have something to do with her hands.

 

Sam seemed to be steeling himself for something. He took a deep breath, gulped, and folded Leah up in his arms. He buried his nose in her hair, just like he used to when they were together. His fingers combed through her shorn locks, and it was almost enough to bring her to tears. God, she missed this. It was exactly why she needed to get away. She wasn’t this person anymore.

 

“I think this is what’s best for me, Sam. I need a fresh start. And you know I’ll give them Hell.”

 

He chuckled and then sighed. “Be safe, Leah. Thank you,” he said, giving her one final squeeze. They pulled apart, and awkwardness once again edged its way between them.

 

Jake saved her. “You ready?”

 

“As I’ll ever be.” Leah shot one last reluctant smile at Sam and the wolves standing a few yards away. She raised her voice a bit. “Keep the rez safe from those leeches, or I’ll hunt you bitches down.”

 

They all had the decency to crack up, recognizing her attempt to keep it lighthearted.

 

She and Jake turned toward the meeting point—the clearing where the battle with the newborns had taken place… God, that was only days ago.

 

They were waiting for her.

 

“How long will you force her to stay?” Jacob asked them.

 

“We’ll keep in touch,” Jane quipped with a disturbing smile. “Ta.”

 

Jacob recognized the dismissal and narrowed his eyes at Jane giving him orders. He turned to Leah, his friend, his pack mate, his… well, in another life, maybe, his. He looked at her hard. “Phase whenever you can. Let us know how you are. If you need us, we _will_ come.”

 

“No, Jake. You won’t. You’ll stay here and do your job. And let me do mine.” She smiled then, to let him know she wasn’t scared. “Bye, Jake.” She took a page out of her brother’s book and walked toward the vampires, never looking back.

 

Leah stripped, knowing the plan was to run until they met the Atlantic. Felix stared lasciviously at her naked breasts.

 

“You wish, bloodsucker,” she snapped at him with a sneer. 

 

“I won’t wish for long, dog. Just wait until I have you chained up…” he adjusted himself indiscreetly. “The things I will force that body to do… mmm mmm mmm.”

 

“Felix,” Jane growled. She turned to Leah, still addressing the other vampire. “She’ll do a lot of things. She doesn’t need to know the details yet. Isn’t it more fun when they don’t see it coming?” Jane smirked, contemplating putting Leah on her knees. There would be time enough for that later, though. Aro was expecting them.

 

They kept a steady pace across the mountains and plains and mountains again. They hit the ocean by nightfall.

 

“We should hunt,” Jane suggested. “The swim will take a few days, and I don’t want to stop once we get onto the Continent.”

 

Leah had been afraid of this. Swimming would take two days, at least, and they would probably make her swim straight through at their superhuman pace. She sighed. “I’m going to need to sleep a little before we start.”

 

Jane walked up to her slowly, face etched in disbelief.  “And what makes you think you’re in a position to tell _us_ what _you_ need?”

 

Leah edged closer to Jane. She knew she was pushing her luck, but Leah figured her opportunities to assert herself would be scant once they reached ‘the Continent.’

 

“Unless your plan is for me to suffer from exhaustion and drown in the middle of the ocean, _widdle bebe_ leech, I need to sleep before we set out,” Leah bit out as menacingly as she could manage.

 

And she paid dearly for it.

 

Before she could register what was happening, she was in agony. A searing pain shot through her skull, down her spine, and through her extremities. Her muscles all locked at the same time, sending her swiftly to the sandy grass, face-first. Not that she knew up from down, anyway. Her body throbbed, screaming at her, tensed beyond the point of endurance, beyond the limits of her imagination of what pain could be. It might have lasted minutes, perhaps hours, but it slowly began to move, exiting her limbs and galloping toward her brain. Leah would have wondered whether her forehead would explode with the pressure, if she were capable of cogent thought at all. That would certainly make her feel better.

 

Bit by tiny bit, the pain faded. Finally, the ache resembled a resonating tuning fork, set at just the right frequency to drive her mad.

 

“Stop! Please stop!” she begged. And the searing agony stopped.

 

Jane clapped enthusiastically. “That was fun! We must do it again soon!”

 

When her glee dissipated, she drew in a deep breath and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she huffed. “We’ll hunt. You…” she gestured to Leah, still crumpled on the earth, “prepare yourself however you will for the swim. We’ll leave in six hours. That should give us enough time to find some decent… prey,” she said, smirking in Leah’s direction. At least Leah wouldn’t have to watch them feed. Yet.

 

Jane crouched down near Leah’s still throbbing head. “But just so you know?” she asked, waiting for Leah to acknowledge her. “I will break you, girl. Just watch me.” Leah glared as best she could through the residual pain. “And don’t even think about trying to escape. Demetri is the quiet one, but he can track you just by picking out the tenor of your mind.”

 

“Hers is… unique,” Demetri began, his eyes glazing over as he sought out Leah’s mind. “Petulant, edgy. A wild animal, begging to be housebroken.”

 

“Perfect,” Felix sighed, the word a prayer on his tongue.

 

The vampires left her there. She dozed as the last vestiges of pain diminished. She contemplated phasing and hunting, but she was far too tired. She would have to eat fish during the swim. Her digestive system would hate her, surely, but she hadn’t much choice. She wouldn’t have a choice in very many situations once they reached Italy.

 

It was that thought that made her get up, phase, and look for food.

 

_Oh, my God, Leah, are you alright?_

_Yes, Seth, I’m fine. They’re letting me hunt and sleep before we swim across the Atlantic._

_Swim? Are you nuts?_

_It’s not like I have a choice in the matter, Jake. I can swim fine. I’ll be tired by the time we arrive, but I’ll make it._

_Fair enough. Thanks for letting us know you’re okay. We miss you, Leah._

_Yeah, me too!_

_Thanks, guys. Er, over and out, I guess._

Jake and Seth both disappeared from her mind; she guessed they were updating Sam and the rest of the pack. And her mother, likely. She wished she’d had time to say goodbye to her mom. Next time she talked to one of them, she’d tell them to apologize for her. Maybe it would mean something.

 

The ocean was one big, wet mess. The Volturi slowed to match Leah’s pace, but they made decent time. Leah got tired now and then, but she let the animal mind within her take over as much as she could. Jake had taught her that. It helped. Unfortunately, she didn’t even get to see much of the undersea life because most creatures gave the vampires a wide berth. A shark or two sniffed around, or whatever sharks do when they assess other predators, but hastened away quickly enough to save their own skins. Or, again, whatever sharks had that passed for skin.

 

Leah could smell the evidence of land long before she could see it. The water grew more polluted the closer they swam toward Spain, and she’d never been so happy to swim in dirty water. She smelled rancid food, and oil, and garbage, and sewage, but her muscles were vibrating with the strain of working for so long without rest, and she was happy to know she was almost there.

 

When they reached the Italian coast, she phased back to her human form and collapsed on the sand. Luckily, it was just after sunset. And it’s not like nudity was particularly unusual on Italy’s coast, private beach or no.

 

“No stopping,” Jane demanded.

 

“Your little lap dog can carry me, then,” Leah said, still resting on soft sand. “At least you can gawk at my boobs that way, Felix. Keep the dream alive.”

 

Felix snorted and picked her up. Once out of sight, they ran through the countryside. Leah took the opportunity to sleep again. She vaguely noticed as they entered a guarded fortress. A dizzying array of turns and stairs and elevators later, the three vampires and one naked human entered a large room with thrones lining the circular walls.

 

“Ah, you’ve arrived safely. How wonderful.”

 

“Lord Aro,” Jane said, bowing. “We come bearing the shape shifter.”

 

“Excellent, my love. Thank you.”

 

Jane bowed again, and turned to a vampire at Aro’s right arm (one much like herself) and embraced him. Alec, Leah would later learn he was called.

 

A beautiful female vampire entered the throne room, a group of curious humans in her wake. “Aro!”

 

“Heidi! You’ve come in time to meet our new guest,” he said, gesturing to Leah. He kissed Heidi twice on each cheek. “And my dear Leah, you’ve arrived just in time for the banquet.”

 

Leah had already gathered that Heidi wasn’t leading a tour group, she was returning with fast food.

 

She only wished she were asleep now, she thought to herself as the adrenaline pumped through her arteries and the bile rose in her throat.  

 

They would never let Leah leave the room, she knew that much, but she closed her eyes against the screams of terror and the way they were suddenly choked off, hastily devolving into the stunted gurgling of life ending.

 

Leah kept her eyes shut, never looking to find out what the wetness was that splattered against her. She stood still, refusing to fix her hair or cover her body though she knew she was surrounded by vampires chasing and draining humans. She prayed for God to make her a stone, and she practiced the part in the meanwhile. She fought everything inside herself to keep from phasing and attacking. While it might make her feel better to do something to stop the carnage, she wanted to live to see the next day.

 

Eventually the screams and laughter subsided, replaced only with satisfied humming and the wet sound that accompanies the licking of one’s lips and fingers after a meal of, say, fried chicken.

 

“Well,” Jane sighed, “shall we hose her off, then? Personally, I’d rather just leave it. At least she smells less like ‘wet dog’ with all that blood covering her,” she finished sensibly.

 

Leah would not give Jane the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

 

“Don’t worry,” Felix offered. “I’ll make sure she gets cleaned up.” Leah opened her eyes quickly enough to see him scan her hungrily.

 

“Very well,” Aro agreed. “I’ll have Gianna bring round the steel shackles. Until tomorrow, then, lovely Leah.” Aro came to her then, and touched her on the cheek with a smile. His eyes went glassy for a moment, and when he refocused, he beamed at her even wider. “I look forward to learning more about you, my dear. Good night.”

 

Gianna emerged from the shadows, then, the shackles clanging in time with her steps. She looked around dispassionately, eyeing first the lower-level vampires cleaning up the mess on the floor, and then the blood-spattered Leah herself. She turned her gaze to Felix, smiling flirtatiously. “Would you like a bucket of water to wash this, sir?” she asked, gesturing to Leah.

 

“Who said I would be cleaning her with water?” He glanced at Leah’s stone-still form. “My tongue will suffice, I’m sure.”

 

Leah shivered. In fear, surely. Maybe. Possibly. 

 

Felix relieved Gianna of her burden and shooed her away with whatever words he could muster. He was looking forward to some time alone with the shape shifter.

 

“Now, then,” he cooed at Leah, leading her to the back of the throne room and through a heavy wooden door. The space behind the door was a simpler anteroom. All it had in the way of furnishings was a sturdy metal exam table, a wooden sideboard, and a series of eyebolts along the walls at varying heights, each cemented directly into the ancient stone. It did have a homey, crackling fireplace at one end, though.

 

At least she’d be warm if he tortured her here.

 

“Ooh, I’m so scared at your little torture chamber,” she quipped. As long as she wasn’t gagged, she planned to give him a mouthful.

 

Felix pulled Leah by her bound wrists and grabbed her face roughly between a thumb and forefinger. She tried to pull away, but his grip was strong. He flashed her a smile. “You will be.”

 

Before she could blink, he had her face up on the table with her wrists chained to an eyebolt behind her head. She couldn’t move her ankles, either—they were fastened to the legs of the exam table. She whipped her head from side to side, but Felix was gone. Would he leave her here like this? Alone, unable to move, chained to a cold metal table? Only feet from a dozen or more vampires she couldn’t predict? She almost welcomed Felix’s company.

 

A few very long moments later, Felix reemerged with a leather-bound case. He set it on the sideboard to Leah’s right. If she strained her neck, she could see it. When he opened the case, she wished she couldn’t. Inside was a collection of very sharp-looking knives. He pulled them out one by one and spread them across the tabletop, like a doctor arranging his surgical instruments. Her heart began to pound.

 

Leah knew this was a possibility. She knew she would likely get hurt. Perhaps naively, she thought maybe they would let her stay a little longer. Surely he wouldn’t kill her this early in the game? Surely…

 

Wait. If he wanted to kill her, why would he use a knife?

 

Felix chuckled at her, noticing how focused she was on the sideboard display. “I’m not going to kill you. Yet, anyway. I just want to play with you some.” He toyed with a few of the knives but approached her with empty hands.

 

His crimson eyes were practically glowing. Probably from feeding so recently, she thought with disgust. He dipped his face near her throat and growled with pleasure. Her mind was shouting at her to run, to fight, to do _something_. Leah knew this was her enemy, and she was fighting every instinct in her body not to phase. For one thing, she was here to protect her pack, and killing Felix would certainly be the opposite of helpful in that endeavor. For another, she wasn’t sure how strong the steel holding her was. Phasing might just get her ankles and wrists broken.

 

Rationally, her mind knew these things, but her body wanted to listen to the centuries-old code embedded in her genetic material that screamed at her to _kill_.

 

And then she felt his cold tongue sweep from her jugular to the hollow between her collarbones, and her heart pounded harder. The adrenaline cut a path through her body, making her limbs weak and her chest heave. His saliva (the venom?) left behind a tingling sensation that was unlike anything she’d felt before.

 

His tongue, the adrenaline, her heart pounding, the steel against her skin; it all combined into a single intense feeling… one she sincerely _wanted_ to hate, but didn’t. She hummed softly, and he continued his descent down her chest. He trailed his tongue along each of the red spots that dotted her torso, and her body sang its agreement. Some of the blood had dried; those bits of her skin he sucked into his mouth, releasing them with a wet _pop_ when he’d cleaned it off.

 

“I can taste the lust on your skin,” he told her, his chilly breath raising gooseflesh on her stomach. She believed him. “I want you to know, little Leah, I’m going to do whatever I want to you,” he looked up to her eyes, “until you beg me to stop.” And then he bent his head to her breasts, and his hands kneaded her tense thighs further apart.

 

And, oh… it had… been… such a long… long time since any… anyone had…

 

“Haaah.. touch me,” she breathed. Oh, god, she’d really just asked this dangerous, filthy _thing_ to touch her? But he was doing wonderful things to her nipples, and his fingers were right _there_ ,and she couldn’t find the strength to care about who was supposed to be her mortal enemy.

 

And when his fingers dipped into her, she didn’t care about much else. His hands were ice cold against her feverish skin, and he enjoyed the slippery, warm wetness on his hand as much as she did. He stepped between her legs, still forced open by the steel holding her ankles to the table legs, and lowered his torso over hers. He pressed his nose to her throat again. As much as she was fighting the urge to phase, he was fighting the urge to fuck her hard and rip her jugular open in tandem.

 

They’d have to work up to that.

 

Felix sucked on the skin at her neck, her stomach, and her thighs while he pushed his fingers into her. She asked for harder, faster, slower, and softer as she desired. He complied, knowing that he’d have what he wanted soon enough. And he did love to watch her wriggle. To keep himself from ripping into her flesh with his teeth, he moved his nose and mouth to her pussy. One thing he did love about human women—their cunt-scent always overpowered the blood-scent, as long as he was nose-deep in it. And most of them liked to be licked. Leah was no different.

 

She felt like her blood was boiling inside her veins. The sweat beaded on her scalp and skin and made the table underneath her sticky and slick. She vibrated like she was going to phase, but she held back. His tongue and fingers were faster than any she’d ever known, and all her heat, all her power, all her will bent to his, and her muscles tensed in ecstasy, stretching to endure the pleasure of fingers inside her and a tongue against her clit.

 

Felix would have known the moment she came that she was something more than human, if he hadn’t already seen her in her animal form. She bent several of the chain links holding her ankles to the exam table, there were dents in the metal where her elbows rested, and he was quite sure that if his skin weren’t solid as granite, he’d have bruises on his fingers from how hard she’d squeezed them when she came.

 

She was divine.

 

“Good?” Felix asked with a smirk. Gianna was always sniffing around for another go with him, he was sure Leah would do the same.

 

Leah shrugged as best she could, restrained as she was. “Meh. I’ve had better,” she claimed, working hard to keep her expression unreadable. She wouldn’t let him get under her skin. She would try to get under his, though.

 

He growled at her and climbed up on the table, sitting on her chest. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanking her head back to expose the length of her neck. With his left hand, he chose a long, double-ended knife. He settled one of the points between her clavicles, and the other under her chin. Leah could feel the blade pushing against the underside of her tongue.

 

One wrong move, and she would be dead.

 

“I’ll teach you to keep that insolent mouth shut.”

 

He chose another knife from his kit, this one with a sturdy handle and a short blade. “I’ve been told that our venom is poisonous to your kind. And that you heal quickly. I’m going to test that, my dear.”

 

She wondered how he could know so much about the shape shifters already. Who had told him those details? If they had another informant, why would they keep her around?

 

“My Lord Aro, Leah. When he touched your face, he knew you. He saw everything you’ve ever seen. Heard everything you’ve ever heard. Thought everything you’ve ever thought. You laid your mind… naked… to him with a touch.” He laughed then. “And you didn’t even realize it,” he finished.

 

“You will do the same for me, eventually.” With that, he pressed the second blade to the skin in the curve just below her right breast. A pity, he thought, that he couldn’t just lick the blood up like he had the rest of it.

 

Leah tensed, waiting for him to stab her, to cut her deeply, to pass out from the pain, but she didn’t. He cut her, and it stung, certainly, but he seemed skilled enough with the knife to make it a shallow cut. So she would bleed, but not faint.

 

His thumb traced the already-healing wound, gathering up a bit of her fresh, warm blood. Once it closed, then he took a moment to catch what his thumb missed.

 

Over and over he pierced Leah’s skin, thumbed the blood, and tongued the healed cuts. She did her best not to make any sounds, nor to tilt her head for fear of the blades at her chin and chest. She could tell the test was coming, though. His cuts got longer, deeper. He let more of her blood, and if his tightening grip and the steady stream of growls that poured from his throat were any indicator, he was beginning to lose control.

  
She couldn’t cry, she wouldn’t! She couldn’t do anything, and for the first time, she really wanted him to stop. She was at his mercy, and she hated it. Felix chose that moment to drag the knife mercilessly across her stomach, and she flinched, whimpering in pain. He faltered, watching her closely.

 

Leah cried out, as best she could without moving her mouth, “Please… please stop!”

 

And he stopped. He carefully lifted the blade from beneath her chin and placed both back in his case. A towel she hadn’t noticed before was beside the case, and Felix used it to staunch the blood flow from the last cut. He unchained her and helped her sit up. She still wasn’t crying, which impressed him.

 

“You did so well, _cucciola mia_ ,” he said tenderly and kissed her on the cheek. “There are blankets and pillows there,” he explained, gesturing toward a dark corner of the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow, dearest.” And he disappeared faster than she could muster the strength to speak a word.

 

As she moved gingerly to make a bed for herself, she thought back on words he’d spoken earlier, now infused with new meaning.

 

_I’m going to do whatever I want to you until you beg me to stop._

 

She suddenly felt much less like a helpless prisoner.

 

***

 

As it turned out, Leah didn’t see Felix the next day. The morning after her introduction to his knives, Jane collected her from the anteroom. She was paraded about the throne room in front of a bunch of vampires in robes before Jane commanded her to kneel on the floor below the centermost throne. Leah recognized it as Aro’s, but he wasn’t seated there at present.

 

Leah was a good head and shoulders above Jane, so she did her best to intimidate the child vampire before complying. She knew it was best to pick her battles. Jane just kept on smiling that creepy-ass smile of hers. When Leah was comfortably kneeling, or whatever passed for comfortably on the stone floor of your mortal enemies’ lair, Jane beamed.

 

“Good doggie,” she teased.

 

Leah couldn’t help herself. “Seriously? You’ve been alive for hundreds of years, and that’s the best you can come up with? You could at least make a prisoner feel like you’re _trying_ to deliver a decent insult.” Leah rolled her eyes.

 

Jane’s smile turned murderous, but she didn’t have the time to act.

 

“Ha! Ha ha ha! What a marvelous tongue, my dear,” Aro complimented her as he took a seat in his gilded throne. Two vampires, one raven-haired and one white-haired, took the open thrones on either side of him. “Of course, I saw as much in your thoughts, but it _is_ delightful to hear it first-hand!” He settled himself more comfortably. “Tell me, lovely, how fare you this morning? I trust you slept well?”

 

She had, actually. Once the adrenaline had drained from her system, she’d slept like the dead. No pun intended. She nodded. “I could use some food, though. And some clothing,” she requested, gesturing to her still-naked form. Not that Leah minded her own body, but she had a feeling that she might have at least some say over what happened to her here. She was eager to test her theory.

 

“Of course! How thoughtless of me,” he simpered. He waved one of the vampires in a lighter grey robe toward the door, indicating he should be the one to fulfill the request.

 

“While we wait, dear, let me introduce my brothers, Marcus and Caius,” he nodded to each vampire in turn. “And then you know our enigmatic Demetri and our sweet Jane already; this is her brother Alec. Should you find yourself in need of _anything_ at all, one of us would be happy to fetch it for you.”

 

Leah raised her eyebrows. None of the vampires looked remotely happy to fetch anything for her.

 

“Now then, I thought you might benefit from hearing the details of your stay. Your trip _itinerary_ , so to speak?” He chuckled at his own irony. “Because you are such a unique specimen, we wish to learn all that we can about your capabilities, your strengths, your… limits of endurance. We are _ever_ so grateful that you’ve chosen to help us in this undertaking.”

 

Translation: blah blah blah, we’re going to torture you; thanks for playing along.

 

But Leah wasn’t so worried. When Jane had woken her up that morning, she suddenly remembered that Felix wasn’t the only one who had stopped tormenting her when she’d asked—Jane had done the same before they left the clearing in Forks. Leah could at least make them stop when she was willing to beg for it. Which, she vowed to herself, she would not do quickly.

 

Some buried, masochistic part of her was actually looking forward to seeing what she was capable of withstanding. She knew she was strong; she had to be after all that she’d endured in this last year. Leah wanted to prove to herself that she could take whatever they threw at her.

 

And a selfish part of her wanted to prove it to her pack.

 

The vampire in the light grey robed returned bearing a simple sundress. And the carcass of a deer. Freshly killed, by the look of it. Leah’s eyes widened.

 

“Ah, my lovely Leah, we have all been so eagerly awaiting seeing you at your most base. You have seen us feed. We would like to see you feed.” Aro smiled at Leah, as though he had not just asked her to humiliate herself. She hated eating in wolf form; it made her feel, well, like an animal. She mustered the meanest look she could, but she guessed this was not one of those times she could say no.

 

Instead, she phased. She let her mean look translate into a fierce growl. If they were going to make her eat like this, they would keep their distance. Leah sniffed at the carcass; it was fresh, just as she’d thought. At least they didn’t give her the day-old leftovers. That was thoughtful.

 

Several of the vampires looked enraptured; she imagined that many had never seen a thing like her. A few of the others, Caius included, looked on in plain disgust. She growled a little louder for effect. If this was the power she had—the power to disgust—she’d take it. She bit into the venison with more gusto than usual. She was pretty hungry after the events of the last few days.

 

Leah let her mind wander some. Switching to the wolf’s mind was a much slower process for her than the physical shift; usually, she fought the wolf mind, determined to keep her humanity in tact. Eating fresh, raw deer meat, though, she didn’t want to think about it as her human self would.

 

_Leah!_

_Go away, Seth. I’m eating._

_But you’re okay! Right?_

_Yes, I’m okay. Just grumpy._

_Oh. Are they treating you okay? Have they said when they’ll let you go? Have you kicked any of their butts yet? Do you miss me?_

_Woah, dude, slow down! You’re going to give me an ulcer. They’re treating me fine_ —Leah fought hard not to think of Felix or his knives— _and no, I haven’t kicked any butt. I don’t know when I’ll come home. But I’m really okay._

_Good. The pack has been worried._

_Yeah, right. I’ll just bet they have. Can you do me a favor?_

_Yeah, sis._

_Tell Mom I love her?_

_She knows. But I’ll tell her anyway._

_Thanks._

_I’m gonna go update everyone, okay?_

_Yeah, no, you should go. And Seth? I can see that you guys are taking turns as wolves to make sure you hear me if I phase. I can also see that you’re taking more shifts than everyone else. Stop. Let them shoulder some of it, if you all insist on doing this. Go take care of Mom._

He didn’t respond for a minute, but finally sighed.

 

_Okay. Love you, Leah._

_Yeah, ditto._

_That movie was so lame!_

_Go away already! Let me finish my breakfast in peace!_

When she finished eating, she phased back. She was still pissed off, but the edge was gone, thanks to Seth. She wiped her mouth across the back of her arm, and stared up at Aro, who stared back in awe.

 

“Did you get what you needed from that experience?” she snapped.

 

“Indeed,” he replied pensively.

 

“Good. Don’t ever make me do it again.” *

 

“Ha ha ha!” He clapped his hands together in delight. “As you wish, my dear.”

 

He kept that promise. She got clothing and human food, as requested, ever after. Aside from those small things, Leah made no demands.

 

One by one, each of the Volturi guard took turns to test her will over the passing days.

 

Aro mostly tried to talk her to death. He had endless questions about the things he’d pulled from her mind. Many were strategy questions, which made her wary, so she answered carefully. What was the pack structure? How strong was her Alpha? Other questions were more personal, obviously intended to bring her emotional distress. He often succeeded, but she did her best not to show it. What was it like to be the only female wolf? How did it feel to know the one she cared for loved a vampire’s pet? How did she like Felix’s knives?

 

She ignored that last question.

 

It was during one of her sessions with Aro and Marcus when Felix entered the throne room, eyes aflame. His gaze met Leah’s for a long moment, his desire for her evident in his little half-smirk. He kneeled at Aro’s feet in supplication, and was dismissed after a brief recount of his investigation of a local rumor about a vampire. The speed of their speech meant Leah caught only a few words.

 

Enough to make her glad she didn’t hear the rest.

 

Marcus, who was usually apathetic as far as Leah could see, appeared to be paying inordinately close attention to Leah while Felix was in the room. His eyes shifted between the two of them, and he seemed to come to some conclusion. Marcus touched Aro on the shoulder as Felix finished his story. Aro’s head snapped up in interest, and he too looked from Felix to Leah and back again. He turned to Marcus.

 

“Monitor it,” he said simply.

 

Leah had no idea what that was about, but she figured there was much about this place that she would never understand.

 

Jane and Alec took their turn with Leah together. Jane wanted to experiment with adjusting the strength of her power to achieve various levels of pain. For the first few sessions, Leah could only handle a few moments of Jane’s torture before begging. Leah hated that she couldn’t endure more, and so she set upon building up her endurance. Of course, once Jane realized she had less power to make the shape shifter beg, she employed her brother in the task. At first, Leah thought that Alec’s gift of numbness was a reprieve from the pain his sister inflicted, but she was quickly stripped of that belief.

 

Instead, Jane used it to draw down Leah’s guard. Alec would let Leah rest, take away her senses for a minute or five, and then abruptly remove the anesthesia just as Jane pushed pain at her full-force.

 

Leah would have almost welcomed Felix’s knives then.

 

 “Stop! Please, please stop!” she screamed after only a brief span.

 

Jane drew back. Leah wanted to slap that smug smile right off her goddamn face. She knew her chance to do just that would come one day, and she would wait patiently for it.

 

Leah was less patient with Caius. His singular goal seemed only to find as many stimuli as possible to force Leah’s human body to phase. He seemed to take such satisfaction from controlling her ability to shift. When Caius finally discovered the efficiency of electrical stimuli, Leah prayed constantly that her brother wasn’t on patrol when it was Caius’s turn. She knew Seth would see enough of it in the minds of the others; she didn’t want him to have to witness it first hand.

 

Leah most _definitely_ would have welcomed Felix and his knives then.

 

When he returned to her, though, he didn’t bring the knives. Felix came to her in the middle of the night (though it wasn’t as though the time of day meant much to the vampires). Lying on her belly, she woke at the sound of the iron hinges of the anteroom door creak as he opened it. She knew him by scent, so she didn’t make a move to cover herself.

 

“Delicious,” he said, and knelt by her feet. He was enraptured by the way her body tangled in the meager sheet he’d provided for her. “Did you miss me, pet?”

 

“Hmm,” she thought. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she teased, not bothering to move to address him face to face.

 

Felix growled in that way that made her shiver. He grabbed both ankles and yanked her roughly toward him, flipping her onto her back as though they did this every day.

 

What a lovely thought that was.

 

He descended on her swiftly, bracing himself above her with one arm. “I know you missed me,” he said, his free hand trailing across her stomach, blazing a cool trail down to her sex.

 

“What makes you the expert on me?” she challenged, quirking her eyebrows. Those eyebrows knit together as he pushed a finger inside her.

 

“Aren’t I?” He pulled his wet finger from her and drew a spiral on her breast with it. His tongue followed behind, and Leah hummed in pleasure. And of course, when he pulled away, she whined a little. Felix smirked at her. “I told you so.”

 

“Hmph,” Leah protested as Felix hoisted her up. He handed her a set of shorts and a tank that she hadn’t seen before. She took them but looked up at Felix questioningly. “What for?”

 

“We’re sparring. Get dressed.”

 

Fuck, yes. She’d been waiting for those words. She pulled on the cotton shirt and shorts as quickly as she could manage and followed him into the throne room. To her surprise, they kept walking. They passed several vampires who looked on in interest, a seething Jane, and a dumbfounded Gianna.

 

The latter made Leah smile.

 

Felix led her through a veritable maze of corridors. The twists and turns were enough to make a human vomit from dizziness, which made Leah glad she wasn’t quite human.  

 

After she was good and lost, he held open another ancient wooden door like the one to her anteroom. Behind it was a large, open space with padded walls and floors.

 

“Aww, are you afraid you’ll get hurt sparring? Need to cushion the blows when I kick you on your ass?” Leah taunted him.

 

Felix shook his head, smiling, and took off his dark robe. Beneath it, he was wearing a pair of sweat pants. And nothing else.

 

Cheater.

 

He hung up the robe and turned back to face her. He walked toward her in slow motion, like a prowling cat. “When you get hurt, lovely Leah,” Felix paused to pull her face up to his own, “it will be from my fists connecting with your skin. Not from the stone floor.”

 

Leah shivered. She pulled herself from his grasp and cracked her knuckles. She drew her right arm back and let her fist fly.

 

It landed with a flat thunk against Felix’s left cheekbone, and it left a sting that radiated up her ulna. “Game on,” Leah said with a chuckle, shaking her fist out.

 

Leah had never engaged in a fight that was so… satisfying before. She knew she didn’t have to hold back, and she knew he wouldn’t either. Recently, her fights were either against that annoying motherfucker Paul, who she didn’t _really_ want to kill, or against a Cullen who she really _did_ but _couldn’t_.

 

He held her by one arm, but she dodged his elbow and twisted in his grip, pulling his own arm behind his back. Leah found purchase on his back with her heel and pushed with all her might, and he flew across the room, skidding on the floor.

 

She’d bet he was happy about the padding now.

 

She’d be right, too. He didn’t think they would be so well matched, but he was glad for it. That meant it would be so much more satisfying when he broke her finally. Just the thought of it made his cock hard. Not that it took much to get hard around Leah, a fact of which he was sure she was aware.

 

He started to pick himself up off the floor, and her gaze shot to the center seam of his sweat pants. She smirked at him. “Fighting turns you on, huh?” she asked innocently.

 

“You turn me on.” She knew as much already; there was no reason to lie.  

 

She sauntered up to him where he still knelt on the floor. He wanted to taste the beads of sweat on her chest from their sparring. “The feeling’s mutual, leech.” She fisted his hair in her left hand to hold him steady, and with her right, she delivered three jabs— _pop, pop, pop_ —right into his nose. Fuck, she felt good.

 

Felix seized two handfuls of her ass and spun her, upsetting her balance and toppling her over onto her back. Now _she_ was only too happy for the padded floor. His hands came around her body, one sliding up to her neck, the other down to her pants, worming its way underneath the hem. While she was busy paying attention to what his thumb was doing in between her thighs, she didn’t notice his other thumb on her trachea until uncomfortable pressure registered.

 

A million thoughts whooshed through Leah’s mind. She was adventurous, sure, but his fingers were capable of snapping her neck. Of crushing her windpipe. A knife wound she could recover from. A flattened throat? A broken neck? She wasn’t so certain of that.

 

What Leah was certain of was that she was scared. She grabbed at the hand around her throat and looked up at Felix with pleading eyes. His eyes had gone dark—she couldn’t see any red anymore. She never thought she’d wish to see red, but she knew at least that the red meant she wasn’t in any immediate danger. Black meant he could be out of control. She tugged, scratched, pried, gasped; she did anything she could to make the red come back to her and his hand to let go.

 

Finally, she put her lips together and forced out, “Pss! Plss!” Felix blinked, snapping out of it and pulling his hand away from her windpipe. The red returned.

 

“ _Merda_ ,” he sighed. “ _Affanculo! Si mi fate pazzesco_ ,” he admitted, kissing up her neck and down the other side. He massaged her shoulders while she caught her breath.

 

She had no idea what he’d said, but she figured it was as close to an apology as she was going to get, whatever it was.

 

Over the next few weeks, they sparred; Felix made sure he never lost control again. She was wary, though, and he felt it in her fighting style. She was much more defensive—she was evading, rather than engaging. Leah was a mess, physically and emotionally. She wanted to let go again, but she was afraid; she wanted to touch his naked chest, but she was afraid. And she woke up every morning with fire in her belly from the dreams she had about him, but the fire was gone from her fight.

 

Felix missed the fire. For days, he tried everything he could think of to get her to respond. He fought harder; he eased up. Tried faster moves, then slower ones. Focused on footwork, then fist work. He wore more clothing, then less. During one fight he would be silent, the next he would try talking her ear off. Desperate, he began taunting her, hoping to set her aflame again. And one day, she finally snapped.

 

“You fight like a girl, _lupa_ ,” he teased as she dodged another of his right hooks. “I thought you were better than this.”

 

She was furious at his comment, but his plan worked. She swung a punch for the first time in weeks. It connected with his chin, but he didn’t care. His girl was back. She aimed a kick at his ribs, but he deflected. When his body was turned, she got in a quick kidney shot that hurt like a motherfucker. She was definitely back.

 

It was cause for celebration, in Felix’s mind.

 

On her next attempt, Felix grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back against his chest. He slid his free hand up to her throat again. She froze. He kept his hand loose, simply holding onto her, and kissed the spot where her neck met her shoulder. He kissed her until she melted against him, like he knew she would eventually. He let go of her arm and traced the exposed skin of her stomach, moving lower in slow, deliberate circles until his palm cupped her heat outside the stretch cotton athletic shorts. She fell to her knees, pulling him with her.

 

“Trust me,” he said, stroking her neck.

 

“Never,” she whispered, but she didn’t stop him or pull away.

 

“Let me have you anyway,” he amended. His fingers began to undulate languidly on the fabric covering her cunt. Leah could feel the cool hardness of his dick pressing into her from behind, and the cool hardness of his fingers pressing into her from the front. She put her right hand on top of his, increasing the pressure against her clit. Her left navigated behind her, searching for his drawstring.

 

“Yes,” Leah moaned quietly. Whatever was between them, there was no stopping it. She wanted to find out exactly what it was.

 

It took Felix a fraction of a second to get her topless and another fraction to meet her pretty mocha-colored nipples with his fingertips. She shuddered, letting her head fall back against his shoulder. He rocked his hips up into the palm of her hand, and she reached inside his pants to pull him free. With one hand, he pushed between her shoulder blades, forcing her to bend down and rest her elbows against the floor. With the other, he tugged her shorts down far enough to expose her swollen labia.

 

He’d waited a good long while to fuck her; he wasn’t going to wait much longer. From the way she rocked her hips, even when he wasn’t touching her, she didn’t want to wait much longer either. He scooted closer, using his knees to knock hers further apart. Leah sank toward the floor with a sigh and closed her eyes, resting her cheek on her hands.

 

She was the picture of submission.

 

“Are you just going to stare at me, bloodsucker, or are you going to fuck me? It’s not nice to keep me waiting while you just _think about it_ real hard.”

 

Okay, submission with a smart-assed edge, maybe. He could deal with that. He delivered a quick swat to her ass.

 

“I’ll fuck you at my own pace. Get used to it,” he spat.

 

“Okay, Grandpa. Whenever you can get it up, then.”

 

Felix growled—she did have a habit of bringing out the animal in him—and he smacked her again, harder this time, but gave her what she wanted. One deep, hard thrust inside her, and they were both paralyzed.

 

He felt like ice inside her, numbing her most sensitive flesh, and she sank further into the floor, lying almost completely on her stomach.

 

She felt like fire surrounding him, searing his granite skin, and he collapsed on top of her, his chest flush against her smooth caramel back.

 

He gripped the crook of her knee, folded it up underneath her body, and slid deeper inside her. When they both finally stopped gasping for breath, he moved. She sighed, shivering. He pushed himself pack up onto his knees, gripped her hips, and penetrated her again, and again, and again.

 

God, the heat was rolling off her in waves. Water beaded on his chest—condensation from her warmth heating the air in the room so thoroughly.

 

He marveled at her. He’d fucked mortal women before—plenty of them, in point of fact. But he’d never had anyone like Leah. She pushed his buttons, and he fucking loved every minute it.

 

Especially _this_ minute. This minute—with his cock pushing the air out of her lungs with every thrust, his hand pulling her upright by her hair so he could suck on her pulse (the same one he could feel beating its rhythm against his sex from inside her) as it _thump thump thump_ ed away— _this_ minute was perfection.

 

And then, his hips pistoning against her backside, his fingers bruising the tender flesh of her thigh, and his cold breath whispering Italian expletives in her ear, she came all over his cock. And when the pulsing of her orgasm slowed, he moved his fingers back to the center of her pleasure and kept up his pace, willing her to scream again. And she did, tensing around him from head to toe, and pussy in between.

 

Leah collapsed in his arms like so much Jell-O. In her meager sexual experience, she’d always been the recipient of slow and sweet, polite and romantic. Felix was none of those things, and he was exactly what she needed. He battered her in all the right ways, in all the right places.

 

He was currently battering her in all the right places.

 

Once she regained control of her motor functioning, Leah slipped off Felix’s lap and spun to face him. With both palms, she pushed him onto his back. She straddled him this time, and took both wrists in her hands, using them as leverage to lift herself off his dick. He struggled to get free, but Leah could tell he was far too close to coming to care how it happened. She rode him hard and fast (for a human), and he gnashed his teeth, his eyes a violent black, and tore one of his hands from her grip. He grasped her hip, pulling her even tighter to him, and flipped them both so he towered over her again. He pushed into her twice more, riding out the crest of his orgasm, and lost control of his strength. Felix snapped her hipbone, and Leah gasped in pain, surprised.

 

Finished, he collapsed beside her. She fingered the spot where he bone was broken. The skin was tender, but she would heal. Felix chuckled.

 

“I told you I’d break you, pet,” he said smugly.

 

“This? Psh,” she dismissed. “This will heal in a few hours. You haven’t broken a thing.” She shrugged. He climbed on top of her, growling playfully this time. Leah smiled. “But feel free to keep trying, vampire.”

**Author's Note:**

> * Paraphrased from “The Girl in Question,” episode 20 of season 5 of Joss Whedon’s Angel.


End file.
